Bright Idea?? Dumb Question??

[Al Zhiemer]

Someone out there with a bit more electrical know how than what I've got might be able to answer this.

 

When I converted to electric windows, I also installed the center console that has the control panel for all four windows. Now obviously I'm only using two switches and figured oneday I might come up with some genius idea of what to do with the other two switches.

 

So... Here is either my genius or my stupidty...

 

After doing the EJ conversion and keeping the required parts for the cruise control, just incase I could figure out how to make it work, which I think I may have solved but will require a bit more research yet. As we all know, space inside for mounting things is a little bit restrictive and I hate cutting up plastics. So, here is my question...

 

Does anyone see a way of being able to use the two spare electric window switches as my controls for the cruise control, I know its not as simple as it sounds but here is my thinking.

          Window Lock - Possibly Cruise On/Off, depending on how the system works

          Left Rear Up - Cruise On

          Left Rear Down - Cruise Off

          Right Rear Up - Set/Acc

          Right Rear Down - Cancel/Dec

 

I know I know... There are probably far easier solutions to this but I just like the idea of at least using those couple of switches for something or removing them, this at least gives me somewhere to mount the switches and keep a nice clean factorish looking install.

 

Any ideas before I go and spend a few more hours on research? Besides why bother going to the effort... Because I can, thats why, I enjoy stuffing around nutting these things out LOL

 

Regards

 

Al

[DaveT]

It could be done with small relays.  And a few diodes.

[skishop69]

I'd have to see schematics to be sure, but if it's like most older cruise units that just look for a 12v signal for each function, then just the switches will do. If the system requires seeing different voltages for each function then you need to add the correct resistors to each circuit to get the correct voltage for that function.

[Numbchux]

Missing some vital details. What car is this? What cruise system are you using?

 

Here's a generic answer. The EA82 cruise system uses a latching on/off switch, so the switch stays where you leave it, whereas a window switch is momentary. Many EJ systems use a single momentary button to control on and off function.

There are ways to use a momentary switch to control a relay, simplest is to just use a latching relay (which would use a separate "on" and "off" function).

Window switches can function a couple different ways, where they reverse the power themselves, or just operate a relay. But either way, a few minutes with the correct cruise diagram, and a multimeter on your switch and you should be able to replicate the appropriate signals for the accel/decel buttons (usually just a switch to ground).

[el_freddo]

@Numbchux - EA81 brumby. We didn’t get the “factory” EA82 cruise control over here. 

So Al will be using the EJ cruise setup. From what model specifically, I don’t know. 

@Al Zhiemer - I like your idea, but not easily accessible, I guess this is where clutch and brake switches that cancel the cruise come into the picture. 

My thoughts on the spare switches - leave them as they look better than a blanked out switch. Or modify the loom to make the top two switches auto up and down for each window. That’d be sweet I reckon. 

Cheers 

Bennie

[Al Zhiemer]

@el_freddo - Yeah, clutch and brake switches will have to be mounted but thats easily done. The drivers side already has the auto up/down feature with the switch that is mounted in the door. Not really interested in converting the passanger side so it does it as well. And yeah, I hate blanked out switch panels as well, hence why I still have two switches that do absolutely nothing LOL

 

Cruise control has been removed from a 1999 Liberty but it has been that long since I looked at it, I can't for the life of me remember how the cruise control combination stalk functioned. Pretty sure there was a seperate on/off switch, then i think you pulled the stalk to set/cancel and then operated the stalk in one direction to increase speed and then in the opposite to decrease the speed. Its a pretty basic setup and I would imagine that it only takes a positive or negative signal to make it do what it is supposed to do.

 

Thanks for the info though people. A little more research is needed and some time sitting down with the system and having a bit of a play is in order here me thinks.

 

Regards,

 

Al

[Numbchux]

The Liberty has a button on the dash, it's a single momentary button, when 12v is provided on that wire to the control module, it turns the system on, and then again on the same wire, it turns off. Easy enough. This button also has an indicator light in it to tell you when the system is on, you may want to replicate that somewhere.

The stalk on the steering wheel has 3 functions. Accel/resume, Decel/set, and Cancel. This is done using a 12v momentary pulse on 2 wires. There are a couple diodes in the switch so it provides 12v to both wires simultaneously for the cancel function (see attached). You could make that your 4th function by replicating those diodes, or leave it off (easy enough to touch the brake pedal to cancel or turn the system off).

 

I assume the switches are from an EA81 sedan or wagon. I don't have any good diagrams on the function of those, but again, shouldn't be hard with a multimeter to figure out how they function and apply a power source to one wire and get it out on another wire when the switch is pressed.

[Al Zhiemer]

@Numbchux - Thankyou, that is the sort of info I was seeking.

 

At that rate, it really shouldn't be hard to wire this in.

 

Regards,

 

Al